Venezuelan Congressman Carlos Ramos is beginning to delve into details about the PDVSA sponsorship of the WilliamsF1 team. According to Ramos, no-one in Venezuela – apart from a handful of Chaves supporters – know the details of the sponsorship: what has been paid and promised the team. According to Venezuelan law, no public money can be committed to such projects without the approval of the Venezuelan Congress. Neither Hugo Chavez, nor PDVSA, can unilaterally spend public monies without government approval. Ramos says that the contract between PDVSA and Williams F1 team might be illegal, as he can find no record of the contract having ever been discussed, or approved, by Congress.
Ramos says that the reports in Venezuela have suggested that the deal could be worth as much as $225 million over the full term, depending on the success of the team.
joeblogsf1 
$225 million??
wow… that’s lot of dough there..
Joe,
Those (two) teams that have chosen to ‘partner’ with a couple of the world’s most dictatorial leaders (Williams/Chavez and Renault/Putin) are drinking from a poison chalice in my opinion.
How does one call in late payments if they occur, and (as I believe to be the case with Renault/Putin/Petrov) how does one remove ‘chosen driver X’ if the performance isn’t good, but the dictator still believes he warrants his place in the car.
Fly with the birds, great….but risk being shot at
Wow, if this blows up, it could be over for Maldonado. Which would, quite suitably, make way for the Räikkönen-Sutil pairing for 2012. I’d like that.
Hmmm . . . interesting timing with Willy apparently about to announce Qatari investment. Cancellation of the PDVSA would enable Willy to offload Maldonado (who hasn’t exactly covered himself with glory this year) and have a Kimi-Rubens “dream team”. Or am I getting a bit carried away??
Dreadful news for Williams, excellent news fof F1 as the sport will be swiftly rid of an unpleasant thug of a driver. Bye bye Pastor, don’t let the door hit you on the way out (he’d probably barge it off its hinges if it did).
@Jerry
Pretty much the first thing that came to my mind when I saw this. Raikonnen’s pace w. Rubens offering development backup, coupled with a good package, could really spur Williams on.
Give Sutil a testing role for a year alongside Bottas so he can improve his development credentials, with the potential for either to step up should Raikonnen get bored again.
I hope Parr is listening…
Very interesting update Joe. I always wonder about peoples view of big deals like this.
It seems that if you deal with someone like this, you get pilloried, but if you deal with someone like a tobacco manufacturer or an arms company started sponsoring F1 it would be unnaceptable.
The real fact is that a lot of sponsors in sport in general have a side that most of the public would not like. It is an unfortunate reality.
I’m not a supporter of the man, his politics or his govt by the way. Just making an observation.
I for one wouldn’t be sorry to see Maldonado leave. His conduct has been appalling this season for a driver in the highest level of sport with his chop on Hamilton (and subsquent accusations and unsportsmanship in interviews) and the blue flag incidents at the last GP. Hamilton hasn’t been much better at times but at least he is starting to show humility and admit to mistakes in the last couple of races.
Hopefully Williams will get Qatari support as Joe writes and be able to fund the shortfall in potential loses from Venezuela
Paul P.
Please don’t believe all the american led propaganda about a democratically elected leader. Try starting here…
http://www.johnpilger.com/articles/the-ghost-of-pinochet-haunts-the-campaign-against-chavez
and for crying out load give FW and AP some credit when they negotiate financing the team. Frank would eat spiv’s for breakfast!
Not sure what the full term means but that’s an awful lot of money for the (lack of) success that is resulting at the moment.
Strip away the questionable sponsors however and you would/could have a much cheaper (and possibly diminished in terms of numbers?) Formula – but on the other hand the old DFV days seem from memory to have been a good spectacle (accepted that safety was not good enough as it needs to be)
Hope the day trip to Woking wasn’t too exhausting Joe
It would definitely be good to get Qatari funding for Williams. Has Maldonado really had such a poor season though? His chop on Hamilton was evidently some unnecessary payback and his ignoring of the blue flags in Abu Dhabi was unprofessional. That’s only 2 races though. He’s more than kept Rubens honest and his quali pace has been decent.
I’m kind of surprised that high profile sports teams (F1 or otherwise) would do such deals. If this goes bad, doesn’t that really wreck the reputation of the team owners? Don’t the team owners have some level of social responsibility? Or is it just a business?
Ben, Maldonado has been okay. You’ve mentioned two incidents for Maldo, we’ve seen over half a dozen for Hamilton. By your thoughts, Lewis Hamilton should be turfed 😉
Interesting goings on behind the scenes at Williams. I fear it’s for naught and they may end up bowing out. They can’t trade on past success for much longer…
@Paul P
You forgot (Team) McLaren being 42% owned by the Bahrain government, and McLaren cars being 50% owned by the Bahrain government.
Pastor Maldonado would not be in F1 but for PDVSA’s money, that says it all. He’s not good enough.
Far better drivers like Nico Hülkenberg this year and (probably) Adrian Sutil next year find themselves without a seat because of the likes pay-drivers like Vitaly Petrov and Maldonado.
Isn’t this the 2nd time this stories raised it’s head? I’m sure there was talk of this before the start of this season
Frank, hold off on that Kimi contract until your Venezualan funds are assured.
Kimi, hold off on that Williams contract until you know they will have the funds to develop a competitive car. What is equity in an underfunded team worth?
Reads like Kimi will have to go to Renault.
Pay drivers have always existed in F1 – let’s not forget that Mercedes paid Jordan to run a certain uknown young German at Spa in 91, not to mention the Earl of Dumfries buying himself a Lotus seat alongside Senna a few years earlier. But is the phenomenon of the state-sponsored pay driver as exemplified by Maldonado a new trend or has this also been around for a while?
Thanks for commenting on the issue Joe.
Claire Williams is to receive hard copy of letter via recorded delivery tomorrow, before 1pm.
This goes beyond the merits of Pastor Maldonado as a driver. Rather what’s getting attention is the fact that no contract was ever discussed and approved in Venezuela’s Congress. We’re talking about millions of dollars here, of tax payers’ money.
Some people have said that dealing with oil companies is kosher, has happened in the past, etc. However, when expenditure of oil companies that belong to the State has got to be approved by Congress, and it isn’t, then there’s an issue.
The Williams team will have to face the music, sooner or later.
It wouldn’t be a surprise to hear that it’s an illegal contract.
And how about the deal Santander made with Ferrari to pay Kimi off and Alonso in? Was that made with respect to the rules? It was probably a very nice meeting of directors/shareholders were Botin explained that to others… “Listen up, guys, I have got a brilliant idea; we are going to pay a race driver to not race! Why? Because I love Alonso!”
W-47,
Ferrari wanted to change. Kimi accepted the deal. What is wrong with that. Get real.
@Josh
For someone in his rookie year Maldonado’s conduct has been terrible. I’m not a Lewis fan by any means and he has been terrible this year too. My point was there is better drivers for Williams that don’t come with dodgy money
@ Paul P
People like you make me cringe, you sat and ranted about dictators lol Where are they? Chavez was Elected. Putin isn’t the Leader of Russia. Dmitry Medvedev is the President of Russia voted into power by the Russian people just like Chavez was voted into power and can be voted out again in 2012.
Let me guess Paul just a wild guess- You don’t happen to be an U.S citizen? If not move there put your head in the sand!!
How did Lewis get into F1 again??
Liambo,
Lewis got into F1 based on his talent. And your views on Medvedev are somewhat naive.
Joe.
PDVSA is also sponsoring 5 venezuelan drivers that race here in Mexico in the 2 of the 3 important championships… and the same guys drive at both….
talking about pay drivers in F1. do you think if the teams get more revenue from the new concorde agreement would dissapear pay drivers (because teams will have more money) or they just spend it somewhere else.. ?
Impressive numbers in there:
http://es.scribd.com/doc/59010972/Pastor-Maldonado-PDVSA-2010
You know I quite expected someone to announce that Sig Berusconi had committed a few million to sponsoring them, but I suppose he likes to spend his money very close to home.
Sean – but equally Williams wouldn’t be on the grid with out Pastor’s funds.
Am not sure which is worse: the tendency of *some* Americans to fall for the considerable right-wing propaganda which is spoon fed by certain influencers over here vs. the eagerness of *some* to assume that anyone who falls for propaganda is an American.
The tendency to blindly paint with a broad brush knows no national bounds… in other words, pot meet kettle…
As for Maldondo: I was taught to not judge a book by its cover. Like most everyone else, I cannot always practice what I was taught. Based on what little of him was visible to me, I had an instant dislike of the guy. Don’t know why.
Then, when some actual evidence supporting that dislike emerged, it only confirmed the original pre-rational bias he had triggered. I could point to that evidence and pretend that I was open minded until his behavior convinced me to not be, but that would be BS. I just plain don’t like the guy.
So when Williams stated that money was not an issue concerning Kimis’ possible return, it probably now is. Good job pen had not been put to paper. That would leave a Barrichello and Sutil partnership using Renault engines ?